


The Waterbender's Tale

by queenlunatic



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Alternate Universe, F/F, F/M, Handmaid's Tale Spin on Avatar, Katara is a BAMF, Mentions of Death, Survival, Wartime Romance, mentions of rape/non-con, nothing too graphic but it can still be triggering, tags to be added as story evolves
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-14
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:21:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27551443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenlunatic/pseuds/queenlunatic
Summary: The war raged until the Fire Lord achieved his goal. More women captured and nations brought to their destruction. The Tribes a thing of the near past. The future built and regrown within the wombs of the women that no longer had a nation.And one of these women was the very same woman that had found the world's reborn hope.Her name uttered now in fear. A myth of a woman.They did not count on her being the most formidable of them all.
Relationships: Aang/Toph Beifong, Katara/Zuko (Avatar), Mai/Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Suki (Avatar), Sokka/Yue
Comments: 10
Kudos: 30





	1. Prelude I

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I am beginning a new series, which will be updated pretty regularly at first because I have a lot written and I'm excited! (Ignore the fact that it might say completed, I am a noob and cannot fix that for some reason lol) I am still working on my other stuff so if you're waiting for me to continue, fret not!, because I will and soon! 
> 
> This work will contain darker elements and mentions of violence/rape/assault so please read at your own risk. While I will not include graphic descriptions it can still be triggering. 
> 
> Also, because this is based on "The Handmaid's Tale" and that book/show contains a lot of religious themes/values/morals a lot of what is written will be taken from that world. Those values are not my own nor do I condone them! This is a safe space and everyone is welcome here. If there is ever anything written that comes off as being hurtful over sexuality please let me know in the comments or in a PM and I will amend it. Note that a lot of views that are hurtful will be from the villains side so, make with that what you will. 
> 
> And with that, let us head into the story.

* * *

**Prelude I:**

  
  
The war had raged for decades. Decimating everything in its path. The land, the people. Famine swept across the nations. Disease. The whispers of lack of children.    
  
So little children.    
  
All knew that the war must end. But how? How to end something that so many have only ever known in their lives. The time of peace seemed like a myth.    
  
The Avatar, the one thing that could have possibly saved them all, disappeared. Lost. Avatars became a thing of myth. Had they ever existed? Had it all been a lie to keep the nations from warring.    
  
They knew there were no airbenders left. Had there ever been airbenders to begin with? Were they not just a thing of children's bedtime stories? 

The people languished. Went about hopeless. Once prosperous lands fell to their knees for lack of trees. Populous nations reduced to the elderly and the near elderly.    
  
Children became almost myths. A child born was almost a miracle in the Fire and Earth Nations.    
  
The Water Tribes, once gleaming and rich with communities full of laughing faces saw their ends in smoke and black snow.    
  
But they still had children. The ocean and moon, Tui and La, seemed to bless them where other gods punished other nations. Another wedge, another point of contention, another reason for warring. 

It began slowly. A couple of traded brides here and there. To make relations more peaceful. To form alliances. The Earth Nation was kind at first, at least, to their Water Brides. They were regarded highly. Given enough riches for their blessings. 

But then it went south all too quickly. These brides traded for peace within the Fire Nation. Traded like chattel. They became second wives to those who could afford them, concubines to those who could only keep them for some nights, mistresses in brothels. Sluts. Whores.    
  
But always coveted. Captured in political raids across the North. Those in the South, more successfully hidden, kept in fear that their day would come. 

The war raged on as this all happened. The Fire Lord, eager and desperate for more power. His greatest wish? To capture Ba Sing Se once and for all no matter what it took. 

In the midst of this all, almost like something out of legend, hope was reborn. Found by one of the coveted Southern women. The Avatar returned at last. A relic found. 

It was almost too good to be true. 

A child Avatar, it was laughable. But they did not count on those who would accompany him. Royalty, the future leaders of their nation, banished even, as some were. 

The Southern Prince and Princess. The Prince of Flames. The Heiress of one of founders of the Earth Kingdom. The Warrior Princess of Kyoshi. All of them formidable in their own right. 

They did not count on the resurfacing of the legendary White Lotus.

Successful, they all their forces would have been, had not tragedy struck them. 

The war raged until the Fire Lord achieved his goal. More women captured and nations brought to their destruction. The Tribes a thing of the near past. The future built and regrown within the wombs of the women that no longer had a nation.  And one of these women was the very same woman that had found the world's reborn hope.    
  
Her name uttered now in fear. A myth of a woman.    
  
They did not count on her being the most formidable of them all.


	2. Chapter One

* * *

**Part I:**

My wrists are sore. That is what I choose to focus on. They are sore and bruised. Soon there will be welts from the hot metal burning my skin. 

I will not heal them. 

I am not allowed to look anywhere but at the ground, at the feet of the man taking me to the last place I will be sent too before I am sent off into the home of a General. My eyes are shielded with guards that look like something they use on Komodo Rhinos. The thought passes by without even a flinch. We know we are nothing but animals in chains here. 

I keep my gaze on the boots of my escorter. I wonder if his feet are suffocating in his clunky leather boots. They probably aren’t. He’s a firebender, this heat must feel pleasurable for them. His back is drenched in sweat, however, so part of me thinks that maybe this rationalization isn’t as true as I want to believe it is. 

I focus back on my wrists. At the sound of the chain as it moves between the manacles. 

_ Clink, clink, clink.  _

I am not alone. There are other girls that have been brought out to be marched through the streets of Caldera city. Displayed, that’s the better word for it. We are considered a luxurious necessity. 

I can feel the delicate skin on my wrists burning more with each passing second. 

_ Clink, clink, clink. _

I will not heal them. 

***

I don’t know where they took him. I do not remember much after the explosions. But I can still hear everything. The bomb, our screams, the cries, the pleading. 

I can still hear him crying out for me. He was just a child. He is just a child. He is. 

I’ve heard rumours that he was rescued by the Resistance. In a last minute attempt, the White Lotus infiltrated and rescued the Avatar before he reached the Fire Nation. But these are just rumours. Faint whispers. So faint that sometimes I think I’ve conjured them up. 

***

The lands had been plagued with disease for years. Famine, illness, bareness. Birth rates had dropped. Infant mortality had increased. The population was declining. The war was taking children and not replacing them. 

The air and water had become so polluted from the wastes of war. Fertility was one of the many casualties. 

The Fire Nation suffered most of all. All those factories had taken their toll on them. The Earth Kingdom did not fall far behind. Only the Water Tribes had seemed to be spared. But they weren’t, not really. The South did not have a population to begin with and the North had only maintained theirs. But they still had babies. 

Water Tribe women were then coveted. They were seen as the only means to secure family lines. Many were captured in the North in raids disguised as political affairs. It was not uncommon to come upon a child with golden eyes and tanned skin.

Concubines, mistresses, sluts, whores. That’s what they were called, before. There were some that had escaped to live in the overlooked colonies. Sometimes they took their babies, sometimes they were lucky to escape alive. 

We’d come upon many of these women and children on our travels. Travels, hm, almost like something of leisure. I almost chuckle. There had never been much leisure even then. 

***

We are escorted into a smaller replica of the Royal Palace. It’s the old Fire Lady’s Palace, or it was. 

The halls reek of incense and spices. Everything in this awful nation reeks of spice. The air is thick with it. 

We have not uttered a word since we were taken from the Dragon’s Keep. A place for our little hatchlings, the Matrons had said, before they can incubate their own little ones. 

Incubate. Like cat-chickens. I nearly scoff at the memory but decide against it. I can’t allow myself to make any noise. It is unseemly. We are things to be admired, coveted, and kept in the Fire Nation. 

Dragon’s Keep, how fitting. 

***

I try not to think about loss as I sit alone in my room. There is so much red everywhere. That’s something I’ve never grown accustomed to, even after five years in this  _ Agni _ -forsaken nation. 

I try not to think of Sokka. Where he is. What happened to him. Is he still alive? Had he been killed when they found out about his lineage? They were not kind about anyone who had ties to the Resistance, male or female. I’d been spared because of my womb. 

I try not to think of Toph. She will have been kept alive. She was of too high status to have been killed. And young. Possibly fertile. And even if she wasn’t she would have been married off for alliance. They would give her a woman like me to bear her children. In some twisted way I hope I end up in her home, if she had one. It might make things easier to see a familiar face. Or harder. I choose to focus on the positive when I think of this. 

I try not to think of Suki. She would have been killed. She’d been a Kyoshi. She was a threat. For her sake, I wished her fertility. Only for her to live. But, what kind of life is this? I had not heard her name mentioned anywhere in the Dragon’s Keep. But there were other holding places. Maybe she’d been there. I felt guilty for wanting her alive at times. Like I was being selfish.

I try not to think of Aang. All I can hear are his screams and cries for help. For me. He’d been a child. He was a child. He was. He was still alive. He’d been our hope. Hope does not just die. 

I try not to think of Zuko. I knew he was still alive. I did not know how this made me feel. 

*****

We are allowed to bathe every night. We are practically forced to bathe every night. We are then oiled and covered with scented water. My favorite scent is the one of Fire Lilies. For something with the word ‘fire’ in it there is nothing harsh about the scent. It is soft, like a caress, and feels warm as the scent enters my nostrils and courses through my body. 

The Matron’s hands are firm as they massage the oil into my thighs. I can feel the calluses of years of hard work as they stroke my thighs. She was from the Earth Kingdom, maybe the colonies. She was not much older than me, but her face was worn from years of working under the hot sun. Her belly protruded in a way that could only mean she’d had a child before. Had the baby been taken from her? Had it died? Had it been born deformed? 

Her hands dug into my flesh more intensely then, as if she heard my thoughts. The Fire Nation had wanted younger women to give birth to their new generation, but she was not old enough to be considered unfit. I could not think of a reason as to why she would be a Matron.    
  
Then her hands dig firmer into my thighs and a sigh escapes her lips. I think of blue skies as her hands move up, and up, until they reach my breasts. She cups both in her hands, seems to test the weight of them before she pinches my nipples. But I cannot feel anything more than an intruder upon my body. Another sigh as she tweaks them, then she rubs circles lightly. “Fertile indeed,” her tone is jarring but her voice is thick.    
  
A final cupping and then she finishes unceremoniously, quick to rub her hands on a towel. There is something akin to a sneer on her face. It is no secret that many of the Matrons despise us. They are effectively our caretakers and our maids. They enforce the rules but also serve us. Both the boss and bossed around. Not even they are exempt from the bounds and chains that exist. They are simply given smaller chains. But this Matron hides her obvious pleasure beneath her disgust. 

I pull on my robe. The fabric is a cheap cotton that scratches at the skin. All of our clothes scratch at the skin. That is why were are oiled up. The fabric is also one that is not breathable. Our sweat mingles with the perfumed oil and makes us sticky, scratchy saunas. 

We are allotted little luxuries in the midst of many discomforts. We take whatever we can get greedily. Almost like beggars. Almost. 

The Matron stands up and I thank her as I’m bound to. I do not feel thankful.

She offers me her name, something she was allowed to keep. Something she did not lose.

Xiuying. 

Her smirk means that she knows who she has was sent to bathe and massage tonight, who’s body she has taken a tiny pleasure in. 

My name was taken from me, changed into something acceptable for the Fire Nation. But it is not like she doesn't know my real name. Who I was. Who I am still beneath this scratchy robe and the oil that clings to my skin.

“Thank you,  _ Xiuying, _ ” I emphasize her name. The smirk comes off her face and she huffs and walks towards the door. The slam tells me she is gone. And I’m alone again.

***

I can feel the moon outside. Tonight it is full. It pulls at the blood inside me, every little vein cries out to move and sway like the element I mastered years ago. 

I am in bed. The sheets pulled up beneath my chin, as if to encase me from the horrors of this new world. Even in the dark, the red walls seem to glow.

I close my eyes. I try not to think. I pray. I pray to Yue.

Yue, you never had to see this world. I think I feel a tear slip from my eyes.  
  
Yue, even you wouldn’t have been spared.  
  
Help us.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments are always welcome! Please let me know what you think to help this story grow!


	3. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A warning!: Themes of sex and death. Please read at your own discretion. (They are not wholly explicit but can be triggering in either case; this is a heavy fic so be cautious going forward.)

I sit in the middle of my bed waiting. Just waiting. That’s all we do in the mornings. I rise unnaturally with the sun now. My body resents that everyday; it has become stiffer and more rigid with each sunrise. I’ll never grow used to it. 

_ It is for you to meditate and contemplate your place in life, _ The Matrons had said, make use of your time alone to find the inner fire that will fuel a new generation that will be brought forth from you. Bearers of a new nation, bearers of dragons! How pathetic she had sounded, telling daughters of the seas and moon to find their fire. To grow an inner flame in their bellies to carry dragons. I had resisted the urge to spit, to find the inner flame she was prattling on about and roar it in her face with a fork split tongue. It wouldn’t have done me any good, it would have just meant that I’d walk away without any tongue at all. 

The bed I now inhabit is bare of any bed sheets, they sit in the corner with stains that prove that I am still useful. Soon those stains will mean that I am no longer useful. But this month they mean that I can still live. The apple-cherry red color disgusts me. There is too much red here. 

* * *

_ “Dinner will be ready in an hour!” I call out through the tiny, splintering window of the kitchen. I try to make my voice as cheerful as possible. Our days have been trying lately, and the little things matter, like a cheerful voice even if it comes out of cracking lips.  _

_ I take out the rice from the cupboard. I had never known that rice could go stale but that’s what it smelt like. And it had bugs crawling through it. I groaned but poured it out into the bowl. I’d pick out as many as I could while I waited for the water to boil. There wasn’t even any salf left. _

_ “Extra protein, I suppose,” I mutter to myself as I begin picking out the tiny bugs.  _

_ There’s a sudden thud from behind me. I turn to see Zuko standing by the coal oven. He’s placing down two parcels on the counter. I didn’t even know he’d gone out to get whatever ration of food he could spare.  _

_ I felt guilty then. It might have been the last of his money. I also felt desperation seep through my pores. That could mean it would be the last of market food, and the last bit of food that didn’t take hours to find. I move towards him and try to find the words to tell him that I’m thankful but also to scold him, we need food but we also need money in case there’s an emergency and we have to leave. _

_ “Don’t bother,” his voice is raspy, there’s an edge to it that I can’t place. “We need the food. We need to be energized.” _

_ He moves back towards the door. He’s left my basket there with what appears to be covered fish. It must have been a small fortune. I purse my lips to keep from saying anything. He perks an eyebrow up. A challenge for me to say something. I won’t. I’m grateful despite his now dwindled purse.  _

_ “Catch of the day,” he says. “I know you’ve been sneaking in bits and pieces of fish into Aang’s rice.” I feel my checks tinge pink with guilt. “He hasn’t noticed,” he adds. _

_ I have been. For the past month. He just looks so weak and rice isn’t enough to keep him standing. There’s bags under his eyes and it looks like the wind could take him. Child of the air or not, a person shouldn’t look like just skin pulled over bone. He needs his actual non-bug protein. He needs his strength.  _

_ I think of mothers that will do anything to make sure their babies survive, even if it’s morally wrong. I bite my lip. It’s for his own good.  _

_ “I let him take the day off from training.” His knuckles tense. I notice that they’re dry. We all seem to be cracking one way or another. He moves to hand me the fish. I grab them and go to put them next to the rice. From the corner of my eye I see him go rigidly still.  _

_ “Zuko?” I move back next to him. I want to touch his face and erase the crease that has suddenly deepened between his brows. I want to feel him, all of him at this moment. I need his comfort; that elysium feeling of being encased in his arms. But I do not move. I feel as though I could break something precious with just one muscle that flexes.  _

_ He exhales loudly. I could swear it came out in a smoke. _

_ “They’ve captured Uncle.”  _

_ My hand is over his in an instant. I can’t find words. Iroh has been captured. Something’s gone wrong. _

_ “Something’s gone wrong,” he repeats the words in my head. “Something is coming.”  _

_ He looks out the window where we can see Aang and Toph in the distance swimming and splashing around. I want to capture the moment. They look so young and innocent. Just like children in a normal world. The sacchrine image burns in my retinas. I glance at Zuko, there are tears rimming his eyes as he watches them too. They are too young.  _

_ “We’ll be alright,” I tell him, the words sound like a lie. But what mother doesn’t lie to protect her loved ones? “We always find a way. We’re family now.”  _

_ I squeeze his hand tighter. He doesn’t respond. He just shuts his eyes and lets silent tears roll down his face. If I once thought the Children of the Sun were incapable of emotions I forget that notion as I’m kissing his salt-licked skin and feeling his shuddering frame beneath my frail one. _

* * *

Father. Mother. Uncle. Aunt. Brother. Sister. 

We were family.

We are family.

* * *

We eat breakfasts in our rooms. Lunch in the ballroom. We are deprived of dinner. 

_ Eating late is not good for maintaining a womanly figure, we must not let ourselves go girls, _ The Matrons say every evening as we are sent to bed. 

I sneak an extra bread roll in my boot during lunch everyday.

* * *

In this stagnant existence, lunchtime is what many of us look forward to. We don’t speak much to each other. We are too scared to form bonds. It would be painful to separate after a sisterly bond has been formed. But we enjoy knowing that we are not alone, not always. 

We’ve become accustomed to the food now too. The spices don’t burn our throats like they used too. We don’t gag or reach for our water as much as before. Our lips do not pucker our faces no longer redden.

Water is adaptable. Her daughters know this all too well. 

* * *

“The sun is bright today,” my partner comments as we walk through the market. We walk in pairs, always two by two. 

They say it’s for our protection, but we’re not stupid. No one would dare to touch us or hurt us. That was a penalty for a traitor's death. 

We are each other’s spies. Even in Caldera, the heart of the Fire Nation, there are networks that work for the Resistance. Many Birthers have already been condemned to death because they were working for the Resistance. We've come to know many of their exposed ankles very well as they blow in the wind like rotting paper dolls as we pass them. They are masked to deprive them of any final recognition. They loom above us like a noosed warning. A roped threat. We are to report any suspicious activity about our partners to our Matrons immediately, or die alongside the traitor and billow in the wind.

“Yes,” I say passively, “Agni’s blessing.”

I could swear I almost felt her body cringe. She’s from the North. These words should be foreign and unheard from us. Can I trust her?

“He will see that this Nation is blessed many times over, our fruits will rebuild a better world.” She sounds so sincere I feel a part of myself fracture. 

Maybe I can’t. 

* * *

  
The week rolls by without much commotion. There’s almost nothing new to do, see or hear here. This is the most heavily guarded keep for the Birthers. Even whispers that are doubtful will not reach us. 

There have been some girls that have left for their first posting, their first General, their first chance to prove themselves. 

After five years of setting everything up, things are finally being set in motion. Birth rates still haven’t seen a significant increase. I quirk my lips in a secret smile at the thought. 

There’s a loud tapping coming from the center of the lesson room. We all look up from our embroideries at Matron Yun. 

“Blessings of Agni upon you,” she starts.

“I receive them,” we respond in unison. 

She smiles, thin lips curling over her teeth.  _ Such nicely trained girls, _ she must think.  _ How well of a job I’ve done.  _ Her footsteps are booming as she walks through the aisles. She inspects us from head to toe. We are birthing cow-pigs after all, we must be just ripe enough to pick.

I can see it in her eyes. The gleam. She will receive great honors with the job she’s done. Such perfect girls. Such perfect wombs. She’s proud. Of us, mostly of herself. She’s trained the heathens. Tamed the savages.They will make her nation stronger through their pains of birth. 

If she has any qualms about mixed blood. Taint, they call it, she’s kept it to herself. We are not Water Tribe. Not anymore. We are Birthers. 

No nation and no name. 

* * *

_ I cool the sweat that clings to his back and he shivers. A slight moan spills from his lips before they latch to the curve of my neck.  _

_ “Katara,” he breathes, voice heavy with desire. His bare chest heaves against my own.  _

_ “Shh,” I whisper. The day has been tense with what comes next. Tomorrow is not certain. But this, this right now is.  _

_ In war, I think, there cannot be love. But there can be this. It already seems too late to turn back. He is my comfort here in this uncertainty. And I am his. There has been so much build up to this. But the tower will crumble. Might as well make it enjoyable.  _

_ Tomorrow is not certain and we might yet die. But right now we are alive and we are in a wartime love.  _

_ In another life, my mind says, in another life we could have been great.  _

_ His golden, catlike eyes meet mine and I believe in the ancient tales of true dragon-men. My belly tightens, flutters as he puts his lips to my throat and my body becomes a flame.  _

_ Later he asks, “Will you …? Are you?” _

_ “I am,” I will respond, plainly, simply. I know I am. Waterbenders know when they can carry life and when they cannot. A gift. A curse. “But I will not.”  _

_ With a flick of my wrist I dispel my chance of feeling life stir within me. At least until the war is over. Maybe after.  _

_ Maybe after.  _

_Maybe after he and I can become actual parents to children not born in war._

_ But not today.  _ _   
_ _   
_ _ It is not long before he is on his knees again and my ankles chain around his neck.  _

* * *

Nights are cold. The heat of the dry eases into chill once the moon is out. 

I think of dragons. Of his eyes. 

My hands bunch themselves on the scratchy fabric above my belly. I remember his lithe body. 

He is alive. I do not know how this makes me feel. 

* * *

_ Aang screams, but his air feeds the flames.  _

_ Sokka screams at Aang to leave, sword swinging _

_ Toph screams, crushing the metal armor with clenched fists.  _

_ Suki screams, blades of her fan clashing with swords. _

_ Zuko screams out pleading for the Avatar's protection, flames flying above him, he fights. _

_ I scream, trying to whip and circle. Trying to douse the flames and slice necks. _

_ We are outnumbered, ambushed.  _

_ When I wake up I am away from my family.  _

_ Shackled.  _

* * *

There are times, when I awake, that I remember the last remnants of a dream. 

Blue eyes like mine. 

Cloudy eyes.

Gray eyes. 

Jade eyes.

Golden eyes.  _ Please Tui and La, even Agni too, please, _ I plead,  _ if I am to never see them again, please let me forget.  _


End file.
